Patent Application
20100053925
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a chip mount, especially to a chip mount for a data storage device that allows easy exchange of chips for the data storage device.
2. Description of the Prior Arts
With progress of computer technologies, varieties of peripheral devices have been developed. Portable data storage devices such as but not limited to flash drives, portable hard drives and flash memory cards have larger storage capacity and smaller size.
A conventional portable data storage device comprises a circuit board and multiple chips. The circuit board has an electronic circuit and multiple through holes. The electronic circuit is formed over the circuit board. The through holes are formed through the circuit board. The chip may be a control chip, a decoder chip or a memory chip and has multiple terminals. The terminals are respectively mounted through the through holes of the circuit board, are soldered to the circuit board and are electrically connected to the electronic circuit of the circuit board.
Capacity of a portable data storage device depends on the memory chips that are mounted on the circuit board of the portable data storage device. Therefore, a portable data storage device with more memory chips and with a higher chip density has larger capacity.
However, since the chip is small in size, soldering the terminals of the chip to the circuit board is delicate and complicated and may easily fail and damage the chip. Besides, each portable data storage device has a specific capacity that cannot be changed or added to after manufacture. Furthermore, since flash memory may only be written to a finite number of times, or has a finite chip endurance, once a block of memory is unwritable, storage capacity of the device is reduced or nullified. Therefore, a new portable data storage device may have to be bought due to chip endurance, one with larger capacity must be bought for upgrading and frequent replacement of the portable data storage device causes waste of money and materials.
To overcome the shortcomings, the present invention provides a chip mount for a data storage device to mitigate or obviate the aforementioned problems.
The main objective of the present invention is to provide a chip mount for a data storage device.
The chip mount is mounted on a circuit board and has a frame and multiple legs being separately mounted through the frame and being soldered to the circuit board. A chip is mounted in a chip room of the frame and is connected to the circuit board through the legs.
The chip mount prevents the chip from being damaged while being soldered to the circuit board. Furthermore, since the chip is removably mounted in the chip room of the frame of the chip mount, the chip is easily replaced with another chip to renovate or enlarge a storage capacity of the data storage device. No new data storage device needs to be bought saving money and materials.
Other objectives, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
With reference to
With further reference to
The legs (20) are separately mounted through the frame (10). Each leg (20) has an inner end and an outer end. The inner end of the leg (20) protrudes into the chip room (11) of the frame (10) and may be mounted in the corresponding leg recess (13) of the frame (10) and between two corresponding partitions (12). The outer end of the leg (20) protrudes out of the frame (10).
The lid (30) is securely mounted on the top surface of the frame (10) and has two opposite sides, at least one positioning protrusion (31) and at least one positioning recess (32). The at least one positioning protrusion (31) corresponds to and is mounted in a corresponding positioning recess (141) of the at least one first positioning protrusion (14) of the frame (10). The at least one positioning recess (32) corresponds to and is mounted around a corresponding second positioning protrusion (15) of the frame (10).
With further reference to
The chip mount for the data storage device as described has the following advantages. The legs (20) of the chip mount are soldered to the circuit board (50) to allow the chip (40) to be electrically connected to the circuit board (50) through the legs (20) of the chip mount and to prevent the chip (40) from being damaged while being soldered to the circuit board (50).
Moreover, since the chip (40) is removably mounted in the chip room (11) of the frame (10) of the chip mount, the chip (40) is easily replaced with another chip (40) that has larger storage capacity to enlarge a storage capacity of the data storage device, to replace malfunctioning chips or renovate expired chips. Therefore, no new data storage device needs to be bought saving money and materials.
Even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the present invention have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and features of the invention, the disclosure is illustrative only. Changes may be made in the details, especially in matters of shape, size, and arrangement of parts within the principles of the invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed.
